The Gate Between Worlds
by TheNerdDude
Summary: To keep two worlds from colliding, there is the Gate. It demolishes life to enter it, but brings new life to exit it. But when one gazes into the Gate, they see the Truth, and the Truth is all. (I will add more chapters to the book as time progresses. Rated T for Intense Violence. I do not own the rights to Fullmetal Alchemist, i.e characters, phrases, etc.)
1. Chapter 1

The year is 1962, and I've discovered something strange and other-worldly, quite literally. This is the story of how I came to Amestris, became a State Alchemist, and found out what the REAL truth behind truths is. Now, sit back and enjoy the show!

I was in a cab riding to the lab I worked at. We had been trying to make a serum that could change the molecular structure of any element in the periodic table, and so far it had been working pretty good. All of the elements in the serum were classified even to me, which is strange.  
The only way I can describe it is that it is a red, gooey substance that can harden into a stone if refined and not kept in hot temperature. That's why we always use hazmat suits to keep the radiation out of our body. Anyway, I was in the cab on my way to work. There was a high chance of a blizzard coming by later in the afternoon, so I would be staying in the lab until after midnight. _Hopefully I don't get mugged tonight_ ,I thought as the taxi cab stopped near the lab.

When I got to work, I put on my protective gloves as always. The serum spreads deadly toxins, and if you touch a certain amount of the unrefined liquid without protection, you will spontaneously explode from molecular combustion. I headed down to the lab to get started on research. Basically, what I did all day was look through a microscope and give tell a guy on a computer information about its atomic and molecular structure, which changes depending on the substance it was applied to. Today was platinum.I looked through the microscope and, sure enough, it was the exact same as platinum. I looked through it in amazement, wondering what kind of substance could do such a phenomenon. "Now all we have to do is find a way to make it change" I mumbled under my breath.

When I was finished, my boss greeted me. "Hello, Anthony. How has Project Philosophy been working out?" he asked.  
"Amazing, sir" I replied. For some reason, the whole experiment with the gel was called Project Philosophy.  
"An object that can turn sand into flour, coal into gold" he said, "Pretty amazing, huh?". My boss, Fritz Lang, was a Jewish film director, and he made documentaries about science like astronomy and chemistry. He wore a lab coat and a monocle, which he said wearing one 'brings back the old days'. I thought I'd never understand the guy.  
"Yes, it is amazing," I said "But we still need to find a way to make the substance able to change into other elements"

My boss chuckled. "Okay, well get to it. We wouldn't want the military to be waiting, would we?" he said gleefully as he walked out of the room and up the stairway.


	2. Chapter 2

As I sat in the lounge room at 11:30 PM, I listened to the radio on the counter next to me. In the lounge room, there was a small kitchenette with a fridge full of snacks and bottles of soda. There was a television with a PBS documentary turned on, so my only source of news was the radio, which was until the signal went funky from the snowstorm outside. The sofas and reclining chairs we sat on were slightly torn, and the walls had a few stains on them. The _pat pat_ of heavy snow was dying down to a _pitter patter_ as the ferocious wind went wild in the cold, dark night. I sat on one of the sofas, wondering how all of these storms and land forms came to be, which led me to think about if there are other worlds and species that are exactly like ours, but with different methods of science and religion.

My co-worker, Daniel, pulled me back to reality by saying "Geez, this is one hell of a storm, isn't it?" he said, before sipping his bottle of cola. "Yeah, we haven't had one like this in a long time" I replied, dazed from mental fatigue. I had been in the lab from 10:00 in the morning to 12:15 at night, only leaving to have a lunch break at 1:00. It had been a long, boring day, since I'd just looked through a microscope and put information onto a computer, and the storm was finally dying down so I could go back to my apartment building and get some sleep in.

There was a long silence, the only sounds being the _pitter patter_ and wind of the snowstorm and the buffering documentary on the TV. I stood up and went to the fridge for a soda and some ice cream to make a float. As I scooped the vanilla ice cream into the glass of soda, I mixed them together to make the ice cream melt. I stopped, and stared at the glass. I had an idea.

"Guys," I said, "I think I found out how to use the molecule gel to change substances". I thought about it and it made sense. "We have to make the substance radiate heat to make the gel melt into the substance, making it change molecular structure!" I exclaimed.

Everybody turned around and stared at me with wide eyes, like they found out I could raise the dead. "We have a genius on our hands" said Daniel with a smile of fascination. "Let's tell boss about that theory and get to research right away tomorrow" he exclaimed to the crowd. True, he could've had too much soda, but it was worth the shot.

When the blizzard finally died down, I could get out of the lab and go home. As I walked through the doors and out onto the bridge, I looked around. It was still mildly snowing, but that was it. Our lab was in the southwest area of New York, on the Hudson River. And let me tell you, it smells like if all the public bathrooms in the world were put into a river and liquified. It looks terrible too, and it doesn't make it any better to put a science lab over it. As I walked onto the sidewalk, I decided I wouldn't go my normal route and instead take the one around where this huge building was going to be made, and I mean HUGE. Like, taller than the Empire State Building. Apparently, people were protesting about it being made (like every New York construction project), but I thought it had potential.

On my way to find a cab, I was at least a bit energized from my root beer float I had in the lab's lounge room. We also had some board games to play, so it wasn't too bad of a night. I inhaled and exhaled cold, misty air as I walked around the block. The night was strangely quiet, like the entirety of Manhattan was a ghost town. I felt like I was in one of those horror movies that have the cheesy jump scares and the high pitched tones that build up to them. I continued my thoughts about how there might be other species like us humans, but with different beliefs and methods of how things work. And since NASA was planning on sending a man to the moon, we could soon discover that there are other creatures out there in the galaxy, as close to us as in our solar system! _How would we communicate_? _Could we build a civilization_? The possibilities are endless!

Just then, I came back to my senses when I heard the _crunch crunch_ of footsteps in the snow. But it wasn't just my footsteps.

There was somebody following me.

I turned around. The man had a long coat and he was wearing a brown bowler hat, I realized that hat immediately, but I knew I had to run. I sped around the corner and across the street. I saw a big red box with windows on three sides and a door on one. _A phone booth_ , I thought. _Now I just call 911 and say that there's a stalker on my tail_. I ran into the telephone booth, picked up the phone, and quickly dialed the emergency number on the number pad. But before the operator could even pick up, a knife blew past my face, leaving a large cut on my cheek. The blade hit the signal box, making it spark like crazy. I turned around and looked at the guys shaded face, and saw something I didn't notice before, but was as creepy as all get out. The man's left eye was glowing red in the dark. The man then grabbed me by the collar and threw me into the alleyway with unbelievable strength. He took out a silenced gun from his pocket and pointed it at me.

"What do you want with me?" I asked, my face wincing from the pain of landing on my back. I was losing too much blood from my head, and I started to feel dizzy.

"I don't mean any hard feelings, Anthony" said a familiar voice "But I just can't have you here and now. My master would be very upset with me".

It was my boss, Fritz Lang, who was pointing the weapon at my head. I didn't know why he would do this, let alone how he had that creepy glowing eye, staring at me with a wrathful look. "The Father is not a very forgiving person, so I'll have to abide his orders. Let's just get this over with" he said with an evil grin.

The last thing I heard before I blacked out was the _pft_ of a silenced gun sending a bullet straight into my head, filling me with sharp, intense pain as my vision went red and soon faded to black.


	3. Chapter 3

The last thing I could remember was tumbling through total darkness, then slamming into cold, hard ground.

I pushed myself upward and staggered from diziness. I didn't know what was going on. I was still cold, even though I was wearing my jacket, This place is eerie, I thought as I held my hand to a swollen spot on my forehead, my heart pounding in my chest. I finally started to closely study my surroundings.

I was in an white room, which is an understatement. The place probably went on forever, but I didn't want to find out. In front of me was a large, aged stone door in front of me. It had a huge eye carved straight through the middle, and it had some ancient language scribed through the stone around the entire thing. I turned my head left and right, examining my surroundings once again. Is this the afterlife? I thought to myself before I heard a voice behind me.

"Beautiful thing, isn't it?

I quickly spun around to see a glowing figure behind me. He was about my height, with only a wide grin on his face. His entire body was painstakingly white, and he radiated an almost blinding light. He had a vague look to him, like he was completely made of the white static that you see on a buffering television. He seemed to be staring at me with non-existent eyes. He walked towards me and I noticed that he was my height. He also had the same facial and body structure as mine. A cold shiver went up my spine as I asked "Who are you?".

Then he turned around, spread his hands out, and exclaimed with a distorted version of my voice "Hmm... let's see. Some consider me God, or the world, or the universe".  
He turned around and went on. "I am one, and I am all. But I am also you". He pointed at me.

I stepped back. This is crazy, I thought. I could just be dreaming this up. The gun could've been a tranquilizer. I'll wake up any minute now.

As if he were reading my mind, the figure said "I hope you know that you're dead, and you're not going back to your world" he said with that same cold voice. I asked "Am I staying here forever?".

"No! Do you really think I'll keep you in this empty place?". Just then, I heard a loud creaking noise and then a slam. I turned around, and I saw that the stone door was opened. A huge sideways eye was sitting there in the center of the entrance.

"You'll have to buckle your seatbelts," he said. "because this is going to be a bumpy ride".

Then suddenly, I felt a hand grab me. Then two. Then five. I was being pulled through the door. I struggled to break free from the hands grasping on to me, but they wouldn't let go. As they pulled me through the door, I tried holding on to the edge, but my hands slipped and I fell into an empty abyss of darkness.

After what felt like forever of falling through darkness, I suddenly hit hard wood. I heard the sound of rain from above and around me. I opened my eyes to find that my vision had went blurry. I seemed to be laying on a porch of a house. I looked to my left and saw what looked to be a mailbox. On it was written "Einc". I looked at it again,  
wondering who in the world would be named "Einc". Then I heard a door open. I looked behind me and saw a man in a raincoat standing in the doorway. He said "Ed, the mailman's collapsed!".

As th man took me up and brought me inside, he asked me "Are you okay? Are you hurt?"

"Yeah, I'm fine" I lied. I didn't want to explain what had happened, because they would probably think I'm a crackhead. I felt strangely hungry, and sure enough, when I looked outside the window, there was a truck with a sign saying "Resembool Mail" on the side.

"I'm...not a mailman, by the way" I said, confused.

"Well, of course you are." the man said "You're Owen, right? Our mailman".

"No, I'm Anthony. Anthony Brooks". I didn't know why this guy was saying I was someone else. He's probably joking, I thought.

The man just stared at me, and another man entered the room. They were both about the same age, maybe about 60 or so, but the man that brought me in had shorter hair, and the man that had just entered had longer hair that was in a thin ponytail out the back. I hadn't had time to look around the house, so I did. The place was nice and quaint,  
probably made in around the 20s. There were nick nacks in the different rooms, and let me tell you, the most delicious smell was coming from the kitchen. I felt really tired,  
so I yawned and stretched. Just then, I heard a squeak, like the sound of wet metal. It was coming from my arm. I rolled up my sleeve and saw something insane.

I had just been shot in the head, met a god who claimed to be me, had been pulled through a stone door by hundreds of little hands, and just as things started to seem less weird, I saw that my arm had become a steel prostetic.

Then I fainted.


	4. Chapter 4

As I slowly slid my eyelids open, I could sense that one delicious smell again. I blinked a few times, then sighed.

"Good, I was just dreaming the whole thing up" I mumbled to myself. I looked over to the side and almost hacked up yesterday's lunch. My arm was still metal. And the two old guys were still there, leaning over me as I laid in a bed.

"You've woken up" the guy with the long hair said. "Are you okay?"

"Okay?! How...how did I get this!?" I exclaimed, waving and pointing to my metal limb.

The two men stared at me, obviously confused. "Owen, you lost your arm in a car accident. Your insurance has proo-"

"I've told you, my name's not Owen! It's Anthony!" I said with confusion. "I'm a scientist, not a mailman. I was born and raised in New York, and I've lived there ever since".

The two men still looked dumbfounded.

"New York. You know? NYC? Empire State Building? Broadway?". The men exchanged looks. "It's a big city in the northeast of the US" I said like I was teaching a kindergarten class.

"We don't know what you're talking about" said the short haired one. "The only super big city here in Amestris is the Central Area, and that's pretty far away from here".

"Amestris?"

The long haired man sighed, then asked "What was the last thing you did before you came here?"

I told them all about the time before I came here, from when I was shot to the part where I was pulled through that creepy door. The men listened and nodded.

The long haired man asked "So you were pulled through the Portal?"

"Wait, the Portal? Have...have you been there before?". There was a long silence.

"No" the man finally replied. "Now eat", he said as he pointed to a bowl of stew right next to me. "You must be starving". Then they both left the room.

After I gobbled down the vegetable stew, the men came back in. I asked "Do you guys have a television I could watch?".

"Television?" they both said in unison.

"Nevermind".

"Anyways," the short haired man said "Ed and I have a theory of how you got here". "By the way, we never introduced ourselves. Silly me! I'm Alphonse Elric, and this is my brother Edward".

There was a pause, then I chuckled. "That's embarassing. I saw your mailbox, but since my vision went blurry, I thought it said 'Einc'"

All three of us laughed.

"Anyway, let's get to buisness" said Alphonse. "How old are you?"

"Twenty-three" I replied.

"What is your hair color?"

"Black" I said. Why is he asking me questions? I thought.

"What is your eye color?" he asked.

"Hazel" I answered. "Why?"

"Wrong, wrong, and right" Edward said. "You're sixteen, and your hair color is brown".

"What?" I mumbled. I got out of my cot and went into the restroom. I looked in the mirror, and guess what? My hair color was brown, and I did look younger. Sure enough, I was also wearing a mailman uniform. My right sleeve was rolled down to show my steel arm replacement. I hadn't taken the time to admire its craftsmanship. It looked like it was partly made of shiny chrome. I raised my hand up and, somehow, made a fist. How does this work? I thought to myself. I thought you couldn't move prostetics since they have no real joints.

"Oh, that. My wife made that for you. It's probably been a year now" Edward said.

"Wife?" I asked. "Where's your wife?"

"On a buisness trip in Rush Valley," Edward said "but of course, you wouldn't know where that is. Come sit down. Al and I need to talk to you".

I came and sat down on the bed. Then Alphonse started talking. "We think that there's another dimension through the Gate." he said. "One that would take only a man who could live billions of years to get to using a spacecraft".

"Wait, what?" I said. "So your saying that the Gate is like a shortcut to another universe?"

"Probably another thousand universes." Alphonse corrected me. "But you'd have to spend an eternity in a sort of limbo until you're pulled through the other side".

"That explains why it took so long for me to wake up here" I said as I put my hand on my head. It was all too much to take in. One minute I'm living a normal life in New York City, the next I'm in another person's body with a metal arm.

"Oh." Edward said. "Does your world use alchemy?"

"Alchemy?" I asked. "No. I thought it was some weird philosophic magic in the ancient days that was used to turn stuff like lead into gold".

Then it hit me.

That was the exact motive for Project Philosophy.

"Well, the lab that I worked at was making a substance that could do things similar to alchemy" I explained. When I said it, though, the two men's eyes widened.

"Tell me" Edward said, his voice trembling. "What color was the substance that lab was making?"

I hesitated, and I then said "Red". Then the two men gasped.

"Whatever you do," said Edward, raising his voice slightly and putting his hands on the edge of my cot. "do not ever get involved with that substance again. Understood?"

"Umm, yes?" I said slightly confused. Then there was a dark, eerie silence that was only defied by the sound of rain banging on the exterior of the house, seeming to rebel against the strange lack of voice in the room.

The silence continued for what seemed like a few minutes, until I stood up and said "Well, I should be off now". I didn't want to take time out of their day for them to hospitalize me. I was fine on my own.

"Are you sure?" Alphonse said. "Maybe you just need a while for your nerves to recover from the automail. The rain might be rusting it or something".

"I'm fine" I said. "Really. And Ed, say hello to your wife for me".

"Sure, youngster" Edward replied, like I was his grandson. "Take care. And, oh! When you start the car, go straight forward and keep going. When you get to the town,  
you'll see a train station". Then he handed me about $5 cash.

"What about the mail I have to deliver?" I asked, and Edward answered "The mail building was severely damaged in a storm in town, and we were the last ones to be delivered to. Which reminds me, you owe me some stuff". I remembered that I had mail for him, and pulled it out of a pouch on hanging over my shoulder like a knapsack. Before I handed it to him, I caught a glimpse of a letter that was from Rush Valley. I smiled and said my goodbyes.

I walked out of the bedroom door and made my way out of the quaint, countryside house. I jogged to the car out near the curb and got inside. As I looked at the dashboard, I wondered why this thing looked like it was from the 1930s. On the outside it looked nice; I hadn't seen a car like it. But the inside was complicated, and it took me about ten minutes to turn on the car and find out how it really worked. After that I got the hang of it, and I drove on to where Edward was talking about.

The night air was humid and the park was almost pitch black, the only light being the stars in the sky and the glow of the towering lamp posts. The park was almost unpopulated; everybody had gone home. Only one man sat on a bench close to one of the lamp posts. He had shaggy black hair and a young, pale face, and he wore a black coat over a black button-down shirt. In all, the man looked like a normal human being. Except for his eyes.

His eyes were cold and red, with thin black pupils staring deeply into the dark sky.

The man looked down, and mumbled in a cold, almost stern voice "I feel like I'm being watched". Then, all of a sudden, he grinned.

"Okay Pride, I know you're here now" the man now said at a normal volume. He stood up, the back of his black coat falling to his ankles, making him look like an evil sorcerer. "Come out and show yourself".

"I would love to Sloth, but unfortunately I'm not that pretty in the darkness" said a magnified voice from out of nowhere. "I've been watching you for some time now".

"What do you want, Pride?" the man known as Sloth asked. "I told you, I'm not going to help you set up a massacre. I have other things to do".

"Like what? Bathe in a steaming tub as you count the amount of money you have?" the voice answered. "All you do is lay around and do nothing!" Then the man heard a whoosh from behind his head.

"I have my reasons for not being a murderer, Pride" said Sloth. "I only kill when I get excited". Then the eerie voice laughed.

"Which is, never" said the voice. "You're always sitting around doing paperwork or getting a luxury massage. You took advantage of being rich!".

"Well, Pride. I believe that you weren't too different when you lived in the house of the President of Amestris" said the man named Sloth. Then, all of a sudden, a dark blade shot out from the shadows, aiming for the man's head. The man put his hand in the way casually, and the blade quickly impaled his palm, blood soaking the wrist of his coat. Then, the ownerless blade retracted and swiveled back into the shadows. And then another odd thing happened. The man's hand that was stabbed seemed to produce a red electricity, reducing the bleeding wound to just a mark, then to nothing at all. His hand showed no sign that it was harmed.

"Next time you try to kill me Pride, tell me first before you attempt" said Sloth. "And you know that it takes more than that to kill me or you". Then the man stood up and walked into the shadows of the park.


End file.
